Focus On: Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu

As one of the foremost music composers working in the games industry, Nobuo Uematsu has achieved success far beyond many of his peers - which extends far beyond the work on the Final Fantasy series which made him famous.

17 years ago, Uematsu wrote the score for a NES role-playing
game being developed by Japanese publisher Squaresoft. Final
Fantasy went on to become one of the industry's biggest
selling franchises - and Uematsu became one of its first
musical stars.

Since then, he's enjoyed success far beyond the limits of the
Final Fantasy series with its iconic theme tunes and battle
music. He's conducted a series of orchestral concerts of
music from the series, with the next one set to take place
near the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next
month, written a song for Hong Kong star Faye Wong (Eyes On
Me, as used in Final Fantasy VIII) which went on to become
the first videogame track ever to win "Song of the Year" at
the Japan Gold Disc Awards, and even started his own band,
the Black Mages, which recently released its second album of
rock remixes of FF battle themes.

Uematsu recently left Square Enix to purse a freelance
career, but will continue to work for the company -
contributing tracks to both Final Fantasy XII and writing the
score for the upcoming Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
movie, while continuing to pursue his own projects outside
the firm. We caught up with him in London to find out his
thoughts on what the future holds for both game music, and
for one of its best-known creators.

Q:
In the 17 years since you wrote the music for Final Fantasy
I, what do you think the biggest change to music in
videogames has been?

Uematsu: Once we got into the PlayStation era, we
could use sounds that we recorded in the studio. That's
definitely been the biggest change, I think.

Q:
Do you think videogame music is now more important than
before?

Uematsu: I think that the role we play has stayed the
same.

Q:
How closely are you involved with every Final Fantasy game?
Do you work with the design team from the very start, or do
you become involved later on in the process?

Uematsu: Once the story, the game scenario, is
finished - that's where I start getting involved.

Q:
When you worked on Final Fantasy XI, did you find it a
different challenge because it was a massively multiplayer
game, so people would be experiencing the music differently?

Uematsu: As you know, up to Final Fantasy XI, the
story was on a linear timescale - so it was easier to set
music to it. But for XI, we lost the control over that - so
yes, I'd say it was kind of difficult.

Q:
On Final Fantasy X for the first time, you worked with a
number of other musicians to compose the soundtrack - why did
that happen, and did you enjoy the experience of working with
others on the composition?

Uematsu: The reason that it happened is because we
were so busy, working on so many things at the same time -
but yes, I enjoyed it very much.

Q:
Talking about the Black Mages for a moment; how did the idea
for the band come about?

Uematsu: It started with the guitarist and the
keyboard player - they just made a demo tape for the band,
and that's how we got started. They just played around with
the battle scene music to make a rock arrangement, and sent
it to me, saying "Listen to this, it's so funny!" I really
liked it, and we decided to make a CD, to make an album.

Q:
Are there any plans to release the Black Mages albums outside
Japan, or perhaps even to perform concerts outside Japan?

Uematsu: I'm currently expecting someone to help us to
release in the UK.

Q:
You've also performed full orchestral concerts of Final
Fantasy music, including one in Los Angeles earlier this year
- are there any future plans for more of these, perhaps even
outside Japan?

Uematsu: The same concert - the same programme that we
used in Los Angeles - we're going to tour around some cities
in America, as we've announced. As for Europe... We're sort
of thinking about doing a tour next summer, but that's not
for sure yet.

Q:
Can you tell us a little bit about your plans now that you've
left Square Enix?

Uematsu: As a freelancer, I'm definitely going to
continue to work with Square Enix, as well as doing other
things. For example, this year I have a classical concert
with an orchestra, and also the Black Mages live gigs and CD
releases.

Q:
What do you think of the new handheld consoles - the PSP and
Nintendo DS? Do you think that they will change the way that
music is used in handheld games?

Uematsu: I guess that people might be playing in the
city, which means that they're going to have to keep the
sound muted. If they end up switching off the sound... Then
I'd say that's really sad!

Q:
Are there any other game series that you enjoy the music of,
or game composers whose work you particularly like?